Indonesia, a vast island nation, was seemingly created for scuba divers. Here you’ll find almost every type of tropical diving from muck diving with strange critters in Ambon to diving with sunfish near Bali and wreck diving off of West Papua. There’s also drift diving in Komodo, colorful reef diving in Raja Ampat and pelagic encounters off the coast of Lombok. To make Indonesia even better, you’ll find luxurious land-based resorts with reputable dive operations or traditionally built liveaboards to maximize your time spent in the water. With so many great options, its hard to limit yourself to just one week’s holiday when scuba diving Indonesia!

Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia between Malaysia, Australia and Papua New Guinea. It is a series of thousands of islands between the Pacific and Indian Oceans and home to 258 million people.

Interesting Facts

Indonesia is the world’s largest island country with 13,466 islands scattered across the Equator. Java is the largest of the islands, housing over half of Indonesia’s population and the country’s capital, Jakarta.

Indonesia is located on the Pacific, Eurasian and Australian tectonic plates making it often seismically active. In addition to earthquakes, the island country contains at least 150 active volcanoes. You can even dive over the top of one, hearing it groan beneath you!

In addition to great underwater conditions, Indonesia is home to approximately 25% of the world’s fish species and 15% of the coral species. In fact, Bunaken National Marine Park contains more than 70% of the known Indo-Pacific fish species. That’s a lot of marine life to see!

First described by Alfred Russel Wallace, a dividing line known as the Wallace line, runs north to south to divide Indonesia along the Sunda Shelf between Bali and Lombok. To the west of the line, flora and fauna are distinctly Asian. To the east of the line, local species become increasingly Australian.

According to several marine surveys, it has been suggested that Raja Ampat hosts the highest recorded marine biodiversity on Earth.

The psychedelic frogfish is one of the most unique endemic species in Indonesia. First described in 2009, this colorful fish has a swirling pattern of white and pink stripes. Each fish is presumed to have a unique pattern much like a human fingerprint. Want to see this fish? Head to the dive site known as the Twilight Zone in Ambon, which is the only place in the world this fish has been recorded.

Because of its importance during World War II to both the Japanese and the Americans, West Papua is home to several easily accessible and historically fascinating wrecks. These include a Japanese Zero, a B17 bomber and a P-38. Other WWII wrecks can be found near Bali, Flores and Central Sulawesi.

Indonesia is a nation of ethnically diverse people. The country is home to approximately 300 distinct native ethnic groups who speak 742 different languages.

Ready to dive into Indonesia? Click here to read more about scuba diving Indonesia.

If Indonesia sounds like your paradise, make the most of your dive vacation by booking a liveaboard. Check out these great options to enjoy the “eat, sleep, dive” vacation you’ve been dreaming of.